Volume 1, Chapter 367 – Leaving the Ship

“How could this happen!”

Xiao Teng grew more and more agitated. If the system was gone, what was he supposed to do from now on?

No…

A sudden light flashed in Xiao Teng’s eyes.

Maybe it was because he had not found that conquest target yet…

As long as he found that conquest target, the system might react again.

Click—

Several men pushed the door open and came in. The tall, burly man at the front was drenched in sweat and panting.

“Teng-ge, we’ve turned the whole ship upside down. No sign of anyone.”

“Impossible!”

A sharp light flashed through Xiao Teng’s eyes.

“Go search again! There aren’t any other ships nearby. Unless she jumped into the sea, she has to still be on board!”

“If you can’t find her in the passenger cabins, search the cargo hold. Open every container for me!”

“Teng-ge, calm down. That’s just not realistic. Most of the containers are at the bottom of the hold. Without a crane, there’s no way to move them up, let alone open them.”

The burly man shook his head, looking rather helpless. Seeing that something was off about Xiao Teng’s expression, he hurriedly added,

“There hasn’t been a single ship coming close to us this whole time, which means this person’s been on board all along. Not taking the normal routes, most likely a stowaway. She might not even have identification. Once we make landfall, there’ll be plenty of ways to deal with her.”

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After taking a breath, Xiao Teng gradually calmed down and asked,

“How long until we dock?”

“About four days. At full speed, we can reach port in less than three.”

“From now on, full speed ahead. Before we dock, gather everyone and have them waiting at the port. I want to see this cargo ship emptied cabin by cabin!”

“Understood!”

The burly man answered and was just about to leave when Xiao Teng called him back.

“Wait. One more thing.”

“Have the kitchen prepare some more food tomorrow. If she weren’t starving, she probably wouldn’t have taken such a risk.”

“Got it.”

…

Lying inside the container, Shi Lan slept soundly. By the time she opened her eyes, it was already the afternoon of the next day.

For the moment, no effective progress could be made on Samsara’s matter, so it could only be set aside for now, while her journey of tempering herself in the mortal world had only just begun.

At present, all she had on her was a small backpack. It was completely empty. It had presumably held some food before, but all of that had now been used up, and she was badly in need of supplies.

In the daytime, she was too obvious a target, so she had no intention of moving around. It was only after dusk, once the sky began to darken and the moon hung suspended overhead, that she left the container.

She did not go to the kitchen.

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Her tracks had already been exposed yesterday. There was no telling whether the kitchen might be waiting with some kind of trap for her.

Many of the portholes were still lit. It was not yet time for people to sleep. Hunching over, Shi Lan carefully made her way along the ship’s side, searching for the goal of this trip.

The passenger section of this cargo ship was not large. Most of the space was occupied by the cargo hold. Counting them up, there were only a little over twenty cabins in all.

She checked them one by one, and only after nearly two hours did Shi Lan finally find the storeroom where supplies were kept.

She flipped herself inside, locked the door behind her as usual, and began sweeping up what she needed.

At a glance, most of it was odds and ends like rope and canvas. There was not much food on the shelves, mostly canned goods and some fresh water.

Shi Lan took enough for about three to four days and stuffed it into her backpack. Then she rearranged the remaining supplies so they looked roughly the same as before and slowly moved toward the door.

As she tiptoed over, something suddenly tightened under her foot, and she lost her balance in an instant, nearly pitching face-first onto the ground.

Turning around, she saw it was a gray elastic strap. Shi Lan tugged at it a few times and pulled out a set of black clothing from beneath the shelf.

After studying it for a while in the moonlight, Shi Lan realized it was a diving suit.

Her eyes shifting slightly, Shi Lan folded the diving suit carefully and stuffed it into her backpack. Then she rummaged through the supplies and found a breathing tube and a diving mask.

After thinking it over, Shi Lan walked to the wall, took one of the life preservers hanging there, deflated it and stuffed it into the backpack, and finally cut off a short length of rope before stopping.

Glancing over her haul, Shi Lan smiled in satisfaction, slipped back to the door and undid the lock, then turned and retraced her route along the portholes.

With last night’s experience behind her, Shi Lan moved with much greater ease today.

Only, because she had taken too many supplies, the backpack nearly got stuck in the porthole, and it took her quite a while before she managed to pull it through.

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For the next two days, Shi Lan completely settled into a life of waking up to eat and eating before going back to sleep.

Only at midnight each day would she climb onto the deck to take a look at the surrounding sea and observe whether they were nearing land, because she had no intention of becoming a turtle in a jar.

…

Wooooo—

A distant horn startled Shi Lan awake. It was dusk.

That horn just now gave Shi Lan a bad feeling. Even though night had not yet fallen, she still wanted to go out and see what was happening.

After packing her things together, Shi Lan quietly slipped out of the container and poked her head out from the cargo hold for a glance.

There were still two or three people standing on deck. Shi Lan did not dare move too much. Carefully shifting her body, she edged closer to the rim of the hold and looked past the ship’s side, finally managing to see the sea.

A short distance away, a few small fishing boats were drifting on the water. They were no longer far from the nearshore waters.

After thinking for a moment, Shi Lan slowly retreated back into the container and started catching up on sleep.

Fishing boats would not stray too far from shore, but they would certainly not be that close to it either. Covering that distance by swimming under human power was not realistic.

…

At midnight, Shi Lan slowly opened her eyes. She got up, took off her outer clothes and tossed them aside, then slowly put on the diving suit. Fortunately, the diving suit was elastic, so it did not look overly large on her.

She went through her supplies once. Aside from fresh water, a small amount of food, and the life preserver, everything else was discarded.

Once that was done, Shi Lan unraveled the thick rope and braided it into a thinner length of cord.

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With everything ready, Shi Lan stepped out of the container in full gear. She had just lifted her head and taken in the situation on deck when her heart tightened.

It was already past midnight. Ordinarily, people should have been asleep by this hour, yet the deck before her was still lit and there were people patrolling.

The enormous, blazing searchlights swept across the entire cargo ship from time to time, lighting the deck as bright as day.

Clearly, they were guarding against her jumping into the sea. At the same time, it also meant that they truly were already not far from shore.

When the searchlight swept past once more, Shi Lan stopped hesitating. She darted out of the cargo hold, tied the rope to the railing, swung herself over, and slid all the way down along the rope.

By the time she had reached halfway down the ship’s hull, the rope had already run out.

Glancing at the deep blue sea below her, Shi Lan took a deep breath, lowered the diving mask, and released the rope in her hand.

Splash!

The noise of Shi Lan hitting the water was not small, and with people patrolling above along the rail, she was discovered instantly.

Xiao Teng, who came rushing over when he heard the commotion, looked at the rope swaying in the wind and the empty sea, and a trace of irritation flashed through his eyes.

“She’ll definitely go ashore. If she’s a stowaway, her identification documents may not be complete. I’ll add more men right away and block the main roads near the port.”

Seeing this, the burly man at his side hurried to speak, trying to salvage the situation.

Xiao Teng slowly shook his head, his expression turning calm again.

“No need. Call the police directly. Contact customs and tell them someone is carrying dangerous items and entering the country illegally!”